Anna是万众瞩目的大明星，家住毫宅、年薪逾千万，William则是平头百姓。偶然的机会他俩相遇，互生好感。她提出交往，他不敢接受。考虑再三，William还是来找Anna,磕磕巴巴、胆战心惊地拒绝了——

        William: Anna, look, I'm a fairly levelheaded bloke, not often in and out of love. But, can I just say no to your kind request and, leave it at that?
        Anna: Yes.
        William: Fine. Of course, I, of course, I'll just be going, then. It was nice to see you. The thing is, with you I'm in real danger. It seems like a perfect situation, apart from that foul¹ temper of yours, but my relatively² inexperienced heart would, I fear, not recover, if I was once again cast aside, as I would absolutely expect to be. There are just too many pictures of you, too many films. You'd go and I'd be, well, buggered, basically. That really is a real no, isn't it? I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are. My mother has trouble remembering my name.
        Anna: Fine. Fine. Good decision. Good decision. The fame thing isn't really real, you know. And don't forget I'm--I'm also just a girl, standing³ in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

重点讲解

       levelheaded指头脑清醒的、头脑冷静的，block原意是就是木料、材料。他说，自己过于理智，是个不容易坠入爱河的人，也没有太多的感情经历（not often in and out of love），能不能简单地对她的提议说不。

        接下来William解释了自己的顾虑在哪些方面。和她在一起虽然看起来完满无缺（perfect），但他会冒很大的风险：首先，她的脾气很烂（foul）。apart from，除……之外、且不说……，表示这还远不是主要问题。

        cast sb. aside 是个固定搭配，表示把某人抛在一边、抛弃某人。William说，主要的是，如果我再被抛到一边、不闻不问，那么恐怕我那颗脆弱的、阅历不多的（relatively experienced）心是经不起折腾的、是很难再治愈的（not recover），而这几乎是必然（absolutely）要再发生的。这里，expect不是期待的意思，而是指料想、以为。鉴于他俩的天壤之别，William认为，与其迫于现实结束（a real no）不如未曾开始。

        对于William的没有自信，Anna还能说什么呢？Anna只是提醒她，无论她多有名气、多富有，她也只是一个女孩，站在一个男孩面前，请求他爱她。——有些凄凉。

上一篇：《英国病人》：弥留之际乱世真情 下一篇：《简爱》：上帝面前我们是平等的